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A matter of scale...
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bernd: [QB] That could be one reason. Another one might be the balance of forces. I'm not an aircraft engineer, maybe someone can confirm or disprove what I think. gravity: pulling/bending the wings down buoyancy (I hope this is the correct term, never used it before): pulling/bending the wings up It has to do with one of my favorite topics, the scaling paradox: [URL=http://www.uni-siegen.de/~ihe/bs/startrek/articles/scaling.htm]http://www.uni-siegen.de/~ihe/bs/startrek/articles/scaling.htm[/URL] As the wingspan is increased and the wings are simply scaled up to yield the same aerodynamic properties, the weight (and gravity force) rises roughly with the third power, but the area (and therefore the buoyancy, difficult word) only with the second power. Consequence: The wings have to be relatively thinner or lighter than those of smaller aircraft, otherwise a large plane could not fly at all. This gives the wings less stability, though, and they have to be designed flexible. In this case some of the upward force is "wasted" to flex the wings, but there is still a surplus lifting the plane. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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